WOC PRESS
Black Americans have long been avid buyers of high-end goods. Now their expectations are shifting, with important implications for brands. Fayetteville Road co-founder Jessica Couch speaks on this topic in depth in this Business of Fashion Post
Founders featured for Essence Festival of Culture VIP pop-up experience highlighting Haircare Technology App Founder, Candace Harris Mitchell.
Retailers need to think about the purpose of a brand and its products, and the needs of their customer base, in setting a retail strategy, said Brittany Hicks and Jessica Couch, co-founders of consumer research and consulting firm Fayetteville Road. Creating Black-owned sections is not a long term strategy, especially without other efforts to market those brands to customers based on more than their founder’s racial identity and without other strategies to advance equity across the organisation.
Because beauty purchases are so personal, brands need to get to know their customer at a granular level, said Jessica Couch, co-founder of Fayetteville Road, which helps retailers understand niche markets and women of colour. Customers want to know how products fit into their lives and reflect their individuality.
“We’re dating the customer,” said Couch. “You have to get to know them, you have to wow them, you have to give them an experience that’s worth coming back to, and it’s not just as simple as dangling products in front of them.”
Sisterhood means something different to every woman, and it’s one of those amorphous concepts that can’t quite be articulated fully, like love. I was born into a sisterhood. I have one older sister, but I have gone on to curate a life around cultivating sisterhood, unintentionally but unapologetically.
Couch and Hicks didn’t initially plan on founding a company. The two sought to facilitate dialogue about fashion technology and hosted a brunch in 2018 at the Ludlow House in New York for 35 women of color who worked in the field.
The duo thought the brunch would turn into an opportunity in which the attendees could collaborate and brainstorm. But it evolved beyond that into a networking opportunity where women embraced, hugged and discussed business with one another.
Hicks and Couch sought to host the brunch in as many cities as possible.
“There’s just a huge gap between all of the women of color in this space that exists and how they can communicate with each other,” said Couch, who founded her own fit technology firm, Luxor + Finch Consulting, which focuses on matching people to products through technology integration.
"If you want to reach a certain demographic, you go to the people who influence them because they'll buy everything they suggest. This is a modern evolution of traditional buying." - Jessica Couch
Exclusively for BoF professional members, a host of experts discuss how big data makes the fashion industry work better, but needs to be used in the right way and for the right things.
Activists Pushed Retailers to Back Black-Owned Brands. Here’s How Nordstrom Responded. The American department store aims to sell $500 million worth of products from Black and Latino brands and diversify its management. Executives tell BoF how they plan to stay on track.
As part of our series about the 5 things you need to succeed in the fashion industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Couch + Brittany Hicks of WOC Worldwide.
Women of Color Worldwide, a network and resource for professionals in the creative and tech spaces, sent an exclusive curated Black-owned beauty box to editors and influencers, and I was blown away by the quality and packaging of the products (they were all full-sized too!).
Women of Color (WOC) Worldwide, an organization founded by retail technology agency Fayetteville Road, has kicked off its newest campaign to highlight Black-founded beauty brands. Following its successful bi-annual Women of Color FashTech Brunch in partnership with Nordstrom, WOC Worldwide has launched its WOC Beauty Box with the mission to celebrate, uplift and amplify Black beauty brands. Nordstrom tapped Fayetteville Road to support consumer research and serve as the agency of record to continue their efforts to serve a diverse and inclusive customer base.
NEW YORK, Nov. 19, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Women of Color (WOC) Worldwide, an organization founded by retail technology agency Fayetteville Road, has kicked off its newest campaign to highlight Black-founded beauty brands.
Fayetteville Road, rising retail technology agency, just partnered with Nordstrom to host the Women of Color FashTech Brunch. Established due to the lack of community and limited opportunities for women of color in the intersection of creative and technical industries, the WOC FashTech Brunch will celebrate its first national collaboration with leading fashion retailer Nordstrom.
Rising retail tech agency Fayetteville Road recently linked up with Nordstrom to put on the Women of Color FashTech Brunch.
The special event, which launched last month, was created in response to the lack of community and limited opportunities that often face women of color in creative and tech-based fields. The event series aims to serve as a celebration of "the successes and accomplishments" of a number of women of color in fashion and beauty while also establishing a safe space for discussions centered around their respective brands and unique personal experiences in business.
Rising retail technology agency Fayetteville Road announces the upcoming Women of Color (WOC) FashTech Brunch in its continued efforts to bring women of color together.